One of the Horde
| STW War Story VI
One of the Horde |
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Welcome back everyone. This is Miyoshi Tadayoshi, your narrator of the story.
Summer 1532
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The clan meeting of summer 1531 was over, and we've had a peaceful year since. There was no warfare in the entire eastern Japan. Imagawa Yoshimoto seemed to be satisfied with his gain of Shinano early on, and Takeda never attempted another invasion to Musashi - Takeda Nobutora was busy with his western struggle with Mori. The castle of Hitachi was completed long ago. With a good harvest in 1531, we
gathered more than 2500 koku - and a spear dojo was started there! The total army size of Hojo was slowly growing. By summer (1532), we already had a number of 600. Also, we received a new order from Lord Hojo: to attack Echigo owned by a fraction of previous Uesugi! |
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The Echigo province was occupied by the Nagao family, previously under the reign of Uesugi. The army that I led stayed the same in the past two years. This includes my good friend Hineno Yoshitaka's best yari samurai in Hojo clan. The archers were under the command of Hojo Hidetaka, a nephew of Lord Hojo Ujisuna.
The enemy was consisted of some fine yari samurai and samurai archers. We
didn't have too much numerical advantage, so we waited till the rain went down. Hopefully the water
would damp the enemy's bow somehow. |
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So who is going first? Definitely not the peasants who would turn around in
seconds. Hineno Yoshitaka volunteered himself to charge first! His 40 braves rushed through the bridge and directly collided with the left flank of the enemy yari samurai. At the same time I've also led my men crossing the bridge, and hit the enemy YS on the right! The enemy archers were keep backing off for a better shooting distance - but this gave us a good chance to eliminate the enemy yari samurai first. However, I made a mistake by arranging the archers along the river - now we are far too distant to be covered by our own arrows. I yelled for the help of Hojo Hidetaka! |
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The fight was intense! Hineno and myself tried our best to kill the enemy yari samurai, but certainly my own men were poorer trained and Hineno's men were few... and to the worse the enemy archers has come back, preparing for a back attack of us! If that happened for sure my men will collapse! At the same time Hojo Hidetaka appeared with his archers! In this critical moment, who is going to turn around first? |
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Looks like the enemy was several steps ahead! But Hineno Yoshitaka, my good friend and the most skilled swordsman of Hojo suddenly rushed into the enemy line and held the enemy taisho tight by his strong arms! By doing this he was subject to dozens of yari from the enemy - but the enemy taisho was immobilized! We killed the enemy taisho! But Hineno Yoshitaka also gave up his life under
the enemy yari - only
2 years after he gained the title of a legendary swordsman... we shall revenge
for him! |
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The death of enemy taisho destroyed the courage of their archers. These bowmen couldn't step any forward to attack our back, but instead they showed their back to us! I tried my best to order my light-armored men to pursue, but they were already very tired after the intense fight.
We
couldn't really follow up and knock them off - but we did wipe out the enemy yari
samurai... for the sake of my good friend. The province was conquered, but the Hojo clan lost its finest warrior, and I
lost my most precious friend on the battlefield... |
Autumn 1532
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We wouldn't allow all enemy to starve to death in the castle -
that's a way-too-cheap death compared to Hineno Yoshitaka! We want their
heads! In the next season, we obtained the permission from Lord Hojo that the
entire army should assault the castle of Otate! To protect the severely depleted yari samurai, we let Hojo Hidetaka's samurai archers to go first, followed by my ashigaru! |
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In the heavy rain of autumn, we easily took out the enemy archers without too many casualties from the arrow. We revenged for Hineno Yoshitaka by slaying all of the enemy remaining in the castle! We conquered Echigo. The Otate castle was left with minor damages, and we decided to keep using it...
After receiving the sad news of the death of his legendary swordsman, Lord Hojo
ordered the construction of a Hineno memorial tea house in Echigo. Shouldn't a
tea house already on his to-do list... Btw, another tea house was built in Mutsu. |
Another peaceful year after the mourns in Echigo. People have gradually forgot the sorrow and walked out of the shadow. The harvest of 1532 was again good, although Lord Hojo's policy was a straight lowest-tax until the peasants are used to the new ruler. Guess he must be upset by the revolts in Dewa...
We kept training more soldiers. The spear dojo in Hitachi was completed, and
we even had extra budget to build an armoury there! 
I feel proud of being a Hitachi-born. My home boys will be among the finest yari
samurai in the whole nation soon.
Also, the oldest son of Lord Hojo matured in spring 1533. His name is Hojo Ujiyasu,
and Ujiyasu is definitely a brilliant leader in all aspects. He was soon given the command
of Musashi defense! Now Takeda will have a hard time if they dare to step on Musashi once
more. 
Summer 1533
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But Hojo Ujiyasu brought us a astonishing news only two days after he was in
charge of Musashi - our spy reported that the Takeda clan was mourning for their
master! Nobody knows exactly why. The announcement from Takeda states that he died
of a heart attack - but rumors says it was the work of Imagawa's nasty ninja! Nobutora's young son, Takeda Harunobu, was too young to succeed the clan. So finally the former important figures of Takeda divided the lands... Takeda is no longer a united whole... |
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| Such a great change on the west. What will be the reaction of Hojo and
Imagawa, the only two clans left on the eastern Japan? The day of a decisive
battle is coming...
To figure out our future direction, Lord Hojo finally organized another meeting. The great son of Hojo Ujisuna, Hojo Ujiyasu and the new general Ota Yasusuke was also here. During these two rather peaceful years, our clan has grown significantly in both army and economy. A consensus was achieved - our next target would be Imagawa's Shinano! It is essential to neutralize Imagawa here, so our long borders can be secured. The chief general for the campaign of Shinano was of course Hojo Ujiyasu, the competent heir of Hojo. He was given the power of army command in all Hojo territories. This means that I have to train my men in Echigo better so they can be also dispatched to Shinano! Oh yeah, I was formally promoted to rank 3! I cannot say how much
I want to share this honor with Hineno Yoshitaka... but I guess he should
be happy for me if he knows in heaven! |
Another good news was that a skilled general Ota Yasusuke joined our clan in
1532.
Hojo 246
Rebel
160
